


Middle Child Syndrome

by Topology_no_jutsu



Category: Naruto
Genre: Do I know a lot about this guy?, have i grown to appreciate him and his clown makeup?, i have, no, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26242324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Topology_no_jutsu/pseuds/Topology_no_jutsu
Summary: Kankuro's life was always measured between his murderous younger brother and his gifted older sister.  Deemed a failure by his father he strove to carve his own path.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4





	1. First steps

**Author's Note:**

> Fuck if I know, I just read his wiki page and became endeared to this clown looking motherfucker.

“A failure in this too” Rasa looked down at his second child, eyes filled with disappointment.

Kankuro had given it everything he had to move the gold dust his father had given him. He had spent weeks on end training with it and made no progress.

“Enough, this is just a waste of time now.”

“No I can” he refused to give up now, he had to prove himself to his father. “I can do it!”

Rasa watched as he fell unconscious after using too much chakra. He left the boy on the training ground. If he wasn’t compatible with the one-tail and lacked the ability to use his magnet release, then Rasa had other priorities rather than train him. It would be a few hours before Temari returned from her own training and found him. She had been in his place before and pitied him, so she brought him inside. When Kankuro recovered enough to wake up he was surprised to be in his own room. He could only slowly move, his chakra levels were still very low from before.

“Well at least you’re not dead” Temari had heard him stirring and entered the room with food and water for him.

He drank the water in one large gulp before quickly devouring the food. It didn’t restore his condition fully but it went a long way towards making him feel better.

“Thanks.”

“I’m guessing your training with dad is over?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, I didn’t get his magnet powers either.”

Kankuro didn’t say anything else, he just stared at the few photos that were in his room. He was too young to have real memories of his mother, just a photo of the four of them before Gaara was born. Temari could tell he’d need some time to recover and headed to the door.

“Just focus on resting for now ok?”

“Sure.”

She left him alone once more. It didn’t take long for sleep to set in, and soon enough it was the next morning. Out of habit he got up and prepared for training. He sat and waited for Rasa to come to begin training for the day. After the first hour passed without his father arriving Kankuro began to train by himself. He trained alone until noon, he still hadn’t made any progress with the gold dust. His hopes of succeeding were beginning to wear thin as he took a break to eat lunch. As he slowly ate a bowl of rice he thought of new methods to try to move the dust. 

“What if” he held up a single grain of rice with a pair of chopsticks. “I try a lot smaller.”

With a new strategy in mind he left most of the rice behind and returned to training. He sat in front of the pile of gold dust and closed his eyes to focus. He pictured just a single piece of the gold dust and focused his chakra on it. He concentrated hard on forming a connection to the gold piece, he imagined his chakra reaching out like the chopsticks to hold onto it. He felt his chakra react to the mental image he created, and soon felt a connection. For the first time in weeks he could feel the gold dust with his chakra, even if it was just one speck of it. 

“What is he” Rasa had returned home to pick up something he’d left behind when he saw Kankuro.

He saw it, a single thread of chakra reaching out from Kankuro into the gold dust. He paused and watched.

“Please float” Kankuro’s brow furrowed as he tried to lift the speck with his chakra.

It was slow, but Rasa could see the chakra thread begin to rise. The light from the sun hit the single floating piece of gold and confirmed it for him. Kankuro might not be able to use the magnet release to move the gold, but he’d managed to form a chakra thread to one speck of the dust. Kankuro opened his eyes for the first time and saw the piece floating connected to the thread.

“I did it!” his method had worked, he now would just have to figure out how to do it with a lot of them.

“No you didn’t” Rasa chose this time to speak up.

“But I moved it!”

“Yes you moved a piece of the gold dust, but you did not do it the right way.”

“Well I’ll do it the right way next!”

“No, you are done training with the gold dust. If I see you practicing with it again there will be consequences.”

“But I’-”

“No buts.”

With that Rasa collected the dust and returned it to the container he kept by the training area. Kankuro starred as he did, knowing his father had found a new level of disappointment to be in him. Left alone again but without the dust to train with, Kankuro returned to his room defeated. Two days in a row his training ended abruptly and in disappointment. Temari found him curled up on the floor.

“Well you don’t look any better from yesterday.”

“I’m a failure and dad hates me.”

“Well, you’re in that stage of this” Temari sat down across from him. “Did you run into him today?”

“He saw me training and forbade me from practicing any more even though I moved the dust!”

“You moved the dust?” she was stunned by this news. “How?”

“I just connected to it I guess and then moved it.”

“If I can get you some of the dust can you show me?”

“I think so?”

With a nod she got up and snuck towards the training area. With a quick scan of the room to check out it was clear she moved into the equipment room. She channeled chakra to the bottom of her feet and climbed up to the pot their father kept the dust in. She scooped out a handful of it quickly and then dashed back to Kankuro’s room.

“Alright show me what you got” she dropped the handful on the floor.

Kankuro sat upright and began to focus once more. After a few moments of this Temari saw the chakra thread begin to reach out towards the pile of dust. She gasped as the thread picked up the dust piece. 

“I hate to say it” she knew he wouldn’t like this. “But you’re not actually doing it.”

“But I’m moving it!” he slowly gestured to the suspended dust.

“Technically yes you are, but not with dad’s magnet release.”

“That’s not fair, I still did it.”

“Just forget about it ok” she scooped the dust back up. “We can talk about it more tomorrow.”

Frustrated and alone again Kankuro climbed into his bed to mope. He’d been given a goal to reach and had succeeded, but now everyone was telling him he’d done it wrong. As he drifted off to sleep his father’s dismissive words echoed in his head. He would prove he wasn’t a failure. When he awoke the means to his new goal had been left at the foot of his bed. A small wooden puppet with a scroll tied to its back.


	2. Am I bad parent?  No, it's the children who are wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After much harassment from one(1) person, here is the chapter two no one ever thought would happen.

At the best of times Rasa could be considered an absent father, he usually referred to his family as an independent one. This meant a night such as this was very rare, he was for the first time in two months, eating with his children. His youngest Gaara, who was being fed by Yashamaru, Temari who sat across from him as the oldest, and last but not least, Kankuro. For some reason Temari was glaring at Kankuro, he assumed it was some squabble between them and didn’t want to hear about it. Aside from the small outburst from Gaara, both his crying and the literal sand he would throw sometimes, it was a pleasant evening.

“Dad, are you real-” Temari finally stopped glaring to turn to her father.

“I’ve told you before, it is Lord Kazekage even with my family.”

“Right sorry, Lord Kazekage, are you really not going to tell Kankuro to cut it out?”

“I’ve told you before, any issues between the three of you is best settled between the three of you. Additionally, I see Kankuro doing nothing wrong aside from eating his dinner in blissful silence.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No I am not.”

“That isn’t Kankuro!” she pointed at the “Kankuro” in question. “It’s his stupid Kankuro puppet!”

“I assure you if this was a puppet” Rasa turned his glance back to Kankuro, now noticing the odd way his mouth would open and close. “I would, probably, be aware of it.”

“What do you mean Lord Kazekage” the puppet now turned to face him, Kankuro was throwing his voice from somewhere but had failed to sync it up with the mouth. “It is I, you’re middle child Kankuro enjoying a lovely dinner.”

“I don’t recall giving you a Kankuro puppet, how exactly did you get this?”

“From what I understand the stork delivered me here just like Temari so yes you did not give me my very real human body.”

“Can you walk your plate over to the sink then?”

“I can uh” the puppet had some difficulties pushing it’s chair out from the table. “Definitely do that.”

The two watched as the puppet first stood up from the chair onto some very wobbly feet. It then turned and with a surprising precision grabbed the plate from the table. As the legs tried to move once more to walk the arms fell limp and dropped the plate. 

“I see” Rasa tried to not let the crashing sound phase him as he appraised the puppet. “It seems you can only move two limbs at once.”

“No I can move all of my human limbs at the same time” the puppet held up both arms and then tumbled over as it tried to pick up its feet as well. “Sort of.”

“If you tell me where you got the puppet I will not be mad about the plate you just broke with it.”

“I want that in writing.”

“Fine, Yashamaru write that down please.”

“Yes sir” he was currently trying to land an airplane in Gaara’s mouth, the sand barrier had other ideas. “Just uh, one moment.”

After four more failed attempts he gave up on the airplane method of feeding Gaara, hoping the sand would feed him; he just left the baby food on it and grabbed a paper. After scribbling the agreement down he slid it over to Rasa. Producing his Kazekage stamp of approval he officiated the paper and handed it to the puppet, which in turn put it in a pocket and went to the real Kankuro. Now out of hiding he also signed the document and returned it to Rasa so it could be filed away.

“Thank you, I made it out of my old bed and that other puppet!” Kankuro hefted the puppet onto the table to show it off. “Considering it fooled you I’d say I did a pretty good job.”

“Hm” Rasa had no idea how to evaluate puppets, but didn’t want Kankuro to feel too proud of himself so tried to think of something to point out. “The joints all look too small for the puppets size, you’ll have to improve at crafting if you want to make one that won’t stall in the sand.”

“Well I haven’t brought it out of the house so I didn’t think that would matter.”

“Of course you thought that” without much to work with he decided to just leap on the first hesitation Kankuro showed. “What if someone tried to attack the house? Would you let them inside before trying to attack with the puppet and put Gaara at risk?”

“Well no but this puppet doesn’t even have any weapons to fight wit-”

“Interesting, another shortcoming of this puppet. I wonder how many more I can find in the next minute.”

“It’s the first one I’ve ever made! Cut me some slack!”

“The world doesn’t cut slack, next time you’d like to show off something you’ve made make sure it’s good first.”

As Kankruo ran off crying with the puppet Rasa realized he may have gone too far. It was impressive he’d managed to make a new puppet as well as learn to maneuver it in only a month. He wouldn’t apologize, since according to his book on how to be a single parent from the last century that would establish him as weak. Instead he’d simply buy Kankuro a new bed as well as material to work with, he was sure that would patch things up in time for the next family dinner.

As he slammed the door shut Kankuro screamed into his arm. He’d been so proud of his puppet, he worked on it for three straight days without any sleep. Temari and Yashamaru both said it was impressive, but he should’ve known his father wouldn’t. 

“Don’t look at me!” he’d dropped his puppet on the floor in such a way that it’s eyes were staring at him. “You heard him! You’re worthless trash!”

Without any other outlet for his anger he grabbed the puppet and threw it against the wall. As the carefully painted head shattered into thousands of splinters he screamed again. He just wanted to hear his father say he was proud of him one time. He looked at the now ruined puppet and started to cry again, with tears in his eyes he started to pick up the splinters. It took most of the night to get most of them together again, he doubted he’d be able to fix it even with all the pieces. 

“I’m sorry buddy” he’d started calling the puppet that once he painted the face. “It wasn’t your fault and I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s ok Kankuro” he threw his voice and moved the splinters like the puppets mouth. “Next time you’ll build me so good your dad will have you be proud, I just know it!”

“But I don’t have another head to use, and my bed’s already out of wood.”

“Well then make my head splinters into something else! You can do it!”

“Thanks buddy” Kankuro smiled down at the wood and grabbed some paper to sketch up a new design. “What about, hm, no. Oh maybe, no.” 

He spent most of the night drawing up a new splinter head but didn’t like any of the sketches. Frowning at his latest sketch he balled it up and stood up. It was too late even for him. Standing up and stretching he headed for his makeshift bed.

“Ow!” he hopped back as something stabbed into his foot. “Dammit did I leave a screw on the floor again.”

Sitting down again he checked his foot out. Poking out of the ball of his right foot was a single wood splinter. As he plucked it out a final idea came to his mind and rushed back to his small work station. He’d have to do a lot of work to the rest of Buddy, but was too excited to stop even as the first rays of the sun poked in through his window. 

“Son” Rasa poked his head into the room to see if Kankuro was in. 

He saw him still asleep at the desk, Buddy’s body splayed in front of his sleeping form. Not wanting to wake him up Rasa decided to leave his latest peace offering by the door. Satisfied with what his book had referred to as “Good” parenting, he left once again.

“Buddy five more minutes please” enough light had made its way into the room to stir Kankuro now that it was noon.

“Sleep is for the dead big guy!” as he said this he also used a string to have Buddy shake him awake. “You’ve got a me to finish!”

“Fine fine, food first though” Kankuro stretched in his chair and got up, pausing at the items blocking the door. “What the hell?”

In total Rasa had given him: Three books on puppet crafting, another bed’s worth of wood(originally intended to become a new bed), plenty of screws and nails, as well as one full sized puppet.

“Maybe food can wait” he picked up the new puppet, it was much lighter than buddy and still had a head. “And, we’ve got you a new head buddy!”

“Hooray!”

When Temari came home from her training she found Kankuro passed out in the hallway to the kitchen. She had seen him like this a few times now, it usually meant he’d gotten too excited about working on his puppet to eat and sleep. With a small sigh she dragged him into the kitchen and made him something quick to eat whenever he came to. With that taken care of she decided to peek in on his work.

“You know, I’m sure this is a red flag or something” she looked over the new puppet who now had a pillow for a head, and a crudely drawn version of their fathers face on it. “But hey I’m no doctor.”

She made a note to put on her father’s door about how he once again was using the bed to make puppets. As far as she could tell though his old puppet didn’t look too different, just a new head. He also clearly didn’t understand the order guide books were meant to read in as he only had the “Expert’s Guide to Puppet Building, by Chiyo and  Ebizō” open. She dog eared his current page and flipped through the book a little bit.

“This probably won’t help” she left a little note forty pages further into the book to remind him to sleep. “But someone has to take care of us, and apparently it’s me.”

About twenty minutes later she could hear the sounds of him furiously eating and then running back to his room. She sighed again and hoped the note would at least make him drink water. Before going to bed herself she decided to check in on him once again.

“I told you Buddy! The joint has to be a ball joint for better range!”

“And I told you!” she sighed again hearing him speaking for the puppet. “Ball joints are easier for the enemy to break! It has to be an elbow joint!”

“BALL!’

“ELBOW!”

“Maybe Gaara will turn out normal” she decided against checking in on him. “Is that too much to hope for?”

“STOP DOING THAT” right as she asked that she saw a giggling Gaara fly by on a small sand cloud pursued by the yelling Yashamaru.

“Maybe I can get adopted into another family.”

When Rasa finally returned home from the office he also decided to check in on Kankuro. He knocked and then opened the door to establish that he wanted his son to know he’d be entering, but wasn’t going to actually wait before entering.

“I see you’ve” he paused seeing the puppet that had a sack with his likeness painted on it instead of a head. “Noticed the items I left you.”

“Can’t talk” Kankuro was trying to squeeze Buddy’s chest shut. “Very busy.”

“I also see that you have destroyed the new bed I left for you.”

“Still busy!”

“Right, I’ll leave you be then.”

Rasa pulled out his good parent checklist and filled in the “Had a good conversation with child today” bubble. He was sure the puppet painted to look like him could only be a good sign, or a very bright red flag. Luckily, he was willing to gamble on it being the first.


	3. Oh, Kankuro, we're really in it now

“Sir I know you said not to interrupt you during this time” his attendant had come in, he was in the middle of explaining his newest idea for training Gaara to Yashamaru. “But your home has been attacked.”

“What, Yashamaru, why aren’t you there to defend Gaara” Rasa turned to blame his brother in law, who he had ordered to come here instead of being at the house.

“I don’t know sir” Yashamaru had given up on this particular argument months ago.

“Cancel my next meeting, and also look for new jinchuriki candidates just to be safe” he pulled his robes on and went to the door. “And find out if Yashamaru has any other siblings I can have children with.”

“Uh” the attendant just looked over to Yashamaru who had heard that final comment. “Right away sir.”

Thanks to his Gold Sand traveling back to his residence was a simple task. The exterior of the house looked mostly fine, the door had been smashed along with a few windows but no noticeable structural damage. Entering he carefully maneuvered past the corpse blocking the doorway. The next assailant he found hanging from the ceiling being held by a puppet with his face painted onto it’s head. He knew that had been a good sign. Finally he found his two youngest children as well as the final attacker.

“YOU KILLED BUDDY YOU BASTARD!” Kankuro was swinging a plank of wood at the man, keeping him away from Gaara.

“YOU’RE STUPID PUPPET KILLED MY BROTHER!” the man was having a lot of difficulty grabbing the wood. “STOP MOVING THE DAMN PLANK.”

“Kankuro what happened here” Rasa decided to ignore the man, he seemed harmless enough. 

“THIS GUY KILLED BUDDY!” he managed to get a solid hit in on the man’s head.

“Buddy?”

“MY PUPPET!” another loud bonking sound meant another clean hit.

“I see, sir, why did you do that?” he’d read it was good to listen to children, but to always confirm with an adult before believing them.

“HE FUCKING SHOT ME IS WHY!” the man was pointing at Kankuro. “AND KILLED MY BROTHER!”

“Hm, is this true Kankuro?”

“YES!” as the two by four snapped the man fell to the floor unconscious.

“I appreciate your honesty.”

Kankuro slumped to his knees and leaned on the small sand wall that was around Gaara. Rasa looked over the situation. Three grown men without any markers as to where they were from attacked his home. Kankuro had seemingly taken them all down and protected Gaara all on his own. Yashamaru entered the scene now as well, rushing over to the children.

“What happened here?” he quickly checked them both over for any injuries. 

“It appears Kankuro has taken a stab at replacing you, and has done a fine job of it.”

“What?”

“He fended off the attack here.”

“I guess he did? Are you not worried about either of them?”

“Of course not, I watched him handle the last man.”

“You didn’t” Yashamaru took a very deep breath. “You didn’t help him fend off someone who was attacking him?”

“Of course not, children have to learn to be self sufficient.”

Yashamaru just loudly sighed while putting a bandage on the few scrapes Kankuro had. All things considered, he’d made it out much better than expected. Once he’d regained his strength, Kankuro went over and started kicking the man on the floor.

“Kankuro no, you hit them after they wake up for answers to your questions” Rasa made a sand wall between him and the man. “Kicking him while he’s out doesn’t help us.”

“He killed buddy! He deserves to die too!”

“Hm, I suppose fair is fair, is that hanging man dead?”

“I don’t think so?” Kankuro resumed kicking the downed man as Rasa went to check on the second one.

“All good, he’s breathing, kick away!”

Yashamaru got to work cleaning up the mess from the battle. Rasa took the still living man and held him in a sand coffin for safekeeping. After another few minutes Kankuro came out to collect the hanging puppet. 

“Make sure to clean up that body too” Rasa pointed to the room he’d found them all in.

“Can’t you just move it with your sand?” he was busy trying to get a new door attached to the house.

“I’m watching this guy.”

“Right, I’ll get it out.”

“Thanks.”

Twenty minutes later when Temari returned home, she was very upset. Yashamaru hadn’t been able to get a new door on, but had at least done away with one of the bodies.

“What the hell happened here?”

“A battle, Kankuro knows more about it than I do” Rasa was in the living room sitting by his sand coffin.

“Oh ignore the smell!” Yashamaru rushed into Gaara’s room. “Forgot about this guy.”

She did her best to ignore everything as he dragged a dead body out of the house. She headed into Kankuro’s room, finding him holding a puppet funeral.

“Sorry to interrupt the funeral” she took a seat by the puppet father. 

“Friends, we are gathered here to honor the bravery of one Buddy” Kankruo had either made a casket very quickly or just had one lying around. “He gave his life to save the lives of others, he may be gone, but he will not be forgotten!”

She waited till the moment of silence in his honor ended before asking her question.

“How did Buddy die?” she hoped this would also explain the damages to their home.

“Please, wait till the retelling of Buddy’s Tragedy part of the funeral” Kankuro held a hand up to her. “For now, some words from his family.”

Temari sat through Kankuro’s words to Buddy, as well as his other puppets' words to Buddy. There was then a twenty minute intermission for food, followed by a song to commemorate his passage into the next life. Finally, he pulled out a scroll and unfurled it.

“Please, listen closely as I share with the world Buddy’s Tragedy, part one” he cleared his throat and began to ‘read’ from the scroll.

It had been a normal day for Buddy. He’d argued with Kankuro over which joint type was superior between the elbow and ball joints. Practiced his little dance with Gaara’s sand. Had some words with his puppet father about his progress and was told how proud he’d made his father. Things were going great.

“I think if I hang him here” Kankuro was standing on a chair holding his puppet father. “And rig the trip wire around where you’re at right now it’ll be perfect.”

“What if Temari comes home first?” Buddy knew that was more likely than Rasa returning first. 

“Hm, true I’ll have to use something else then.”

Kankuro got work rigging up a latch to keep the rope holding the puppet up high. Buddy couldn’t quite see what method he used to make the latch release when he wanted it to, but watching the few tests he did with it meant the method worked. 

“Operation father on father violence is ready” he pulled the arms back so they’d be ready to swing shut on contact. Satisfied with his work Kankuro pulled up another chair and sat Buddy down with him to wait. They didn’t have to wait long before they could hear someone outside.

“Oh perfect!” he grabbed Buddy and hid behind a shelf.

“Just bust it open already!”

“It’s fucking hard to just bust a door open!”

“Get out of my way” Kankuro peeked out from his cover at these strange voices, Buddy peeked as well but over him.

As whoever it was began smashing the door Buddy and Kankuro exchanged a glance, it probably wasn’t his dad. Thinking fast he moved Buddy into a better position and got his secret weapon geared up.

“AND THAT” with a final effort the man finished smashing the door in. “Is how you break and enter.”

“So much for stealth” another man pushed past him, scanning the room. His eyes stopped on Buddy. “Why the hell is there a puppet here?”

“FIRE” Kankuro signaled for Buddy to act. His chest compartment swung open and started blasting out wooden shrapnel at the doorway. The shards of his old head sunk into the man who’d entered, as well as the surrounding wall and windows. As the first man slumped to the ground the other two rushed inside in time to see Kankuro fleeing with Buddy. 

“Get him!” one man pointed after Kankuro and ordered the other to give chase.

Had this man paid more attention to the hallway he might have seen the other puppet attached to the ceiling. Instead as he rushed after Kankuro, he also rushed headfirst into the boys trap. With a mechanical click the father puppet swung free and collided into the man. As the pressure plate in its chest compressed the arms swung shut tight around him. For good measure Kankuro smashed a plate he’d left lying out onto his head. With only the one trap set up he retreated into Gaara’s room grabbing a plank of wood on the way.

“Is good help really that hard to come by” the final man walked past his other subordinate.

Inside the room Kankuro did his best to prevent Gaara from waking up. Buddy and he could hear the man’s footsteps through the door. As they sat there hearing him come closer, Buddy wished he’d had another round of shrapnel.

“Bit of advice kid” the door swung open. “If you’re gonna hide, don’t pick the only room with a closed door.” 

Instead of responding, Buddy jumped at the man. He wasn’t equipped with any close range weapons but was still tougher than Kankuro. It helped that seeing a puppet fly at him was enough to make the man hesitate, given Buddy a chance to knock him in the stomach. He lost his breath and suffered more hits from Buddy as he stumbled back out of the room. Kankuro cheered Buddy on. Turning back to face the attacker Buddy was caught off guard and thrown to the floor by a punch. He turned to Kankuro, his eyes were filled with horror as a shadow covered Buddy’s face. 

“As the unfair boot of life came down upon Buddy” Kankuro was near the end of the story. “His final words to me were a simple request to the world.”

There was a pause, Temari had sat through the entire story already so could wait out this latest dramatic act. 

“Be excellent” he kept her and the other puppet waiting for a few minutes before starting on the finale. “To each other.”

“Can you also share what happened after that?”

“Please, this funeral is about Buddy, not the events that followed his death.”

“Right, my apologies” she sat through the rest of the procession silently. At the end of it she helped Kankuro drag the coffin outside. Yashamaru had dug a hole for him earlier by having Gaara roll in the sand and take it away.

“I need a new bed” once they were back inside Kankuro made a B-line to Rasa. 

“Will you use it for the intended purpose this time?”

“Who’s intended purpose definition are we working with?”

“The usual one.”

“Then yes.”

“Well, you’ve earned it” Rasa got up from where he’d been sitting and looked for Yashamaru. “Kankuro needs a new bed.”

“Again?” he’d been asked to get him three new beds in the past three months.

“Again.”

“Can we just buy him actual materials instead of an entire bed frame?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, if he wanted actual materials he wouldn’t ask for a new bed.”

“Of course sir” Rasa grabbed the sand stroller that had formed under Gaara and took him to the store.

Kankuro spent the rest of the night picking up the shards of Buddy’s old head. He’d forgotten to collect them to bury with the rest of Buddy, so he’d just be keeping the shards to remember him by. It also meant he got to see Yashamaru come back to bring an actual stroller instead of the one made out of murderous sand.


End file.
